


picking favorites

by Basil_Spice



Category: Smplive/Lunch Club
Genre: But not these guys :), Fluffy Ending, I’ve noticed that Josh hates a lot of things, Lunch Club - Freeform, Mild Angst, Oneshot, Other, SMPLive - Freeform, They’re friends okay, everything has a happy ending cause I’m weak, platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:14:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25037581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Basil_Spice/pseuds/Basil_Spice
Summary: “you, dashell, and charlie are the only three people I’ll defend because you’re the only ones who aren’t the worst”or josh has a soft spot for three people and three people only
Relationships: Jawsh & Altrive, Jawsh & CallMeCarson, Jawsh & Slimecicle, No Romantic Relationship(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 68





	1. carson’s predicament

**Author's Note:**

> uh I might cross post this on wattpad, follow me there for updates? :,) (@basil_spice there)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> josh comes across a hate comment and can’t help his gut feelings

2 am isn’t the best time to be parinoid.  
But hey, who can change the ways you feel?

It was a windy bittersweet late night. One that someone who had an interesting life would be out taking a walk, or staring out their window taking in the great dark sky, feeling like the main character.

But someone has to be the supporting cast, y’know.  
And staring out your window wait for something to happen was boring anyways, so maybe being the main character wasn’t always a delight.

For Josh, tonight was another dreadful night of scrolling through twitter to drown out all his awful thoughts.  
He didn’t know why he did this every night.  
He hated every second of it. It made him feel worst about himself. Nothing seemed to click when you were different for not liking what other people liked. They’ll tear you to shreads. And Josh hated it.

And still, Josh lies in bed, scrolling through twitter, feeling worst about his life.

Until he finds Carson’s off account.  
He made a dumb tweet. Like he always does. Josh scrolls deep into the reply’s, reading most of them deadpanned and giving small smirks at gifs he found stupid and funny. The process went on until he found a particular comment. It was a hate comment, which obviously set Josh off. But what was so infuriating about it was it was on one slip up Carson had done on stream. All Carson had done was tell someone off for making a homophobic joke, and now someone was complaining about it just because “he was disrespecting his viewers”?

Idiot.

The ravenette’s decision was made, maybe it was time to go to sleep.  
For the next 30 minutes, he laid in bed, overthinking the reply. It was stupid. How could he even let this small of a thing get to him so quickly? And why did it bother him so much? It wasn’t even his problem, it was Carson’s for all he cared. But he couldn’t stop the feeling deep down. Everything felt wrong not doing something about it. 

Josh sits up in bed, grabbing his phone once placed so delicately on the side table. He opens twitter and sends Carson a quick text. Just one to make everything sit well in his stomach. To make everything feel alright.

Jawsh- hey, cars, you alright?

In a second, a ‘seen’ note appeared, but it took a very long time for Carson’s reply. Josh shivered as his mind wandered to the worst places, asking himself if he fucked something up.  
Finally, Carson responsed.

CallMeCarson- yeah, im alright. why do you ask?

Jawsh- cool. I just had the feeling something was off. you sure?

Josh expected the next words of Carson to be ‘yeah I’m good’ and they would move along with their lives. Josh would go to sleep, Carson would as well and everything would be set back into motion. But there was that long pause again. 

CallMeCarson- alright, yeah. I’m not fine. 

There it was.

Jawsh- whats wrong?

Josh hopes that Carson didn’t see that dumb reply. Nobody should be concerned about that. Nobody should even be bothered, and still, the brunette was here at 2:00 am in the morning and texting his best friend because he was the one paranoid about it. 

CallMeCarson- everything’s just been feeling so off today. todays stream sucked and I’ve just been feeling like shit.

Jawsh- you shouldn’t worry about it. you’re amazing at streaming, I’m sure if you asked %99 of those people would say they enjoyed your stream. plus everyone has shitty days. that doesn’t mean you’re not great. 

Josh sat there for a second, flipping over his phone and absorbing his cringe for his own message. He wished he could take it back, but he knew Carson needed it more then Josh needed his dignity. I mean, if you had ever watched any of his streams you'd realize that his dignity was through to roof, so I guess it really didn't matter in retro speculation. Maybe it was just who he was.

CallMeCarson- thank you

Josh smiles to himself.

Jawsh- stop crying

CallMeCarson- wtf how did you fucking know 

Jawsh- stop 

CallMeCarson- it’s hard to believe that someone sent you the most heartfelt and caring message and then tells you to shut up are the same person

Jawsh- shut up 

CallMeCarson- ily :)

So it comes, maybe it’s Josh’s turn to leave Carson on read.


	2. dash and his failed papers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dash just feels a bit stupid with college lately

It’s late. Extremely late. The type of late that you really don’t wanna tell anyone how late you stayed up the next day. The type where you would probably feel like shit the next day anyways. 

Yet here they were, nonetheless, with barely a night's sleep the night before, awake only through total sheer determination.

Well, Josh and Dashell where, sitting in a discord call together, alone almost, sitting in a comfortable silence, only once in a while breaking it with a grunt or a rant about a topic that doesn’t matter, then going back into their mellow white noise. 

They’re both pretty content with this, especially Josh. Everything just felt right, and he was pretty pleased with that.

That is until Dash breaks the silence harshly.

“Dude, can I talk to you about something?”

Originally, Josh thought maybe this was gonna be another rant about a video game or an upcoming event, but the air felt a bit stiffer once Dashell spoke.

“What’s up?” The shorter responds, words softer then he intended.

“Uh, college’s kinda been bothering me lately.”  
“Well what’s bothering you? I can’t help if you don’t tell me the whole story you dumby”. Josh heard a soft laugh from Altrive, as well as a forced snicker from himself. All he really wanted to do in that moment was to air out the situation.

Dashell inhaled. “Okay, this is gonna sound really stupid for me to be upset over, but I failed two tests in business and I’ve just felt really and about it lately”.

“It’s not stupid. But it’s also probably not too big of a deal” Josh pauses for a second, picking up a more cheery tone “Just a business course, right? You’re literally a computer science major!”.

Dash let’s out another shakey laugh as he prepares for his next few words.  
“Yeah I know.. it’s not a big deal.. I just kinda, feel really dumb for it, y’know?” 

Josh can feel the quiver in Dash’s voice when he talks.

“I-I process things too slowly— a..and I can’t.. I can’t do a lot of things. I don’t know a lot things.“ a soft almost unnoticeable sob leaves Dashell’s lips, “I don’t know what to do”.

Josh puts his hand on his own cheek, a large frown apparent on his face, but Dashell had no way of ever knowing that.  
“Hey.. you’re not dumb”  
The other boy lets out a small sad hum.  
“You— you don’t have to force yourself to be faster, or smarter, or someone who you’re not, Dash. This was only one test, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid. It’s means you’re human. It’s sounds fucking cliche and it is but everyone fucks up sometimes.”

Unfortunately, Dash wasn’t really impressed nor convinced by his little speech, only giving the same him from before and a “you prolly say that to everybody but that doesn’t mean it’s true..”

“Nuh uh, in fact you’re one of the most smart and funny people I know.”

“Yeah, what’s the spectrum there, I bet you know a lot of people smarter and better then me”

“Nah, actually, on my list the only one smarter then you is me, and maybe Matt Patt”  
Dash shook his head and smiled, ruffling his hands through his hair.  
“Heh- you dumbass” Dashell says, propping himself up in his chair. “Sorry for my pity party..”

Josh lets out a relevied sigh and happily responds “it’s all fine, I’m just glad I could help.”  
In that moment, the shorter boy really does realize how much his friends mean to him.


	3. feeling different with charlie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> charlie feels too different to be out with his friends tonight

Being in LA was great. At least for Josh it was. He didn’t have to deal with his family, he didn’t have to worry about streaming so much because he could just tell his viewers that he was working on a video, and, since he basically was working on a video he got to stay in the house Lunch Club rented because Carson had invited him. And let it be said, the place was a pretty nice.

Tonight, Ted had decided to grill, so everyone was downstairs together. That was, everyone except Charlie.  
He didn’t know why, but it was bothering Josh that the usually cheerful boy wasn’t here. If it was Schlatt or maybe Carson, he probably wouldn’t have givent it another thought, as those two where some of the least social, but Charlie being gone felt wrong. He missed the stupid puns that Charlie would spew out and the great conversation he could hold. Even if it was just this instance, Josh knew something was up.

Thus, he made his way upstairs to Charlie’s room, hoping to find some answers.

Josh opened the door slowly, only to find his friend there, sitting on the bed, hands by his sides and looking sadly to the ground. 

Josh stepped closer to him, Charlie immediately snapping his neck up to look at the other. Charlie’s amber colored hair was a mess and there where almost unnoticeable red streaks behind his cheeks.

After a few seconds, Josh spoke.  
“Charlie, are you coming downstairs?” He asked, Charlie only staring at him with blank eyes. “Uh, the guys would like if you came to the ‘party’”

The brunette peered around the room, maybe considering ways to escape it. Josh dragged himself over to the bed, carefully sitting next to Charlie on the bed. The shorter extends an arm around the back of the others torso.

“Is everything alright?”  
The usually spunky boy lets out a small ‘mhm’ before slowly moving to leaning his head on Josh’s shoulder. 

“I’m alright..”  
“You sure?”  
“..yeah.”

“alright, I won’t force you to talk” Josh sighs out.  
Charlie looks up at him with tired eyes, half suprised and half trying to keep himself from breaking down.

“You seem sad” Josh says, quite literally stating the obvious. 

Charlie stays quiet. He digs his already smushed cheek into his friend’s shoulder deeper.  
“Why did you come to see me?”

“Because I care about you. We all do.”

Charlie lets out a small chuckle, which quickly turns into a watery smile.

“I-I don’t fit.. in with... everyone. Everyone in our group is just so.. naturally talented, and funny. I’ve tried not to be jealous but everyone just does everything I can do so much better then I can..” Charlie’s frown returns back to his face, his forced smile long rejected. “Am... am I not funny? Do people just.. not like me? .. is it bad luck..? How.. how do I be like them..”

Josh looks into Charlie’s gaze and pulls him into a hug, which Charlie weakly gives into. 

“You’re not untalented Charlie. And you fit in with us perfectly, I don’t think you would have made it this far with the group if you weren’t so amazing. Yeah, you’re different, but we’re all different. If we weren’t we wouldn’t be so special.”

Josh hears a small sniffle.  
“You think so?”

Josh grasps Charlie’s sides tightly in their hug. “I know so. So let’s get you up off your ass and make those idiots days just a little bit brighter.”

Charlie nods. "Yeah, just... lets stay like this for a bit.. if it's fine with you"  
Josh laughs. “Yeah, sure.”.

With this, the two sit in silence, enjoying the others company for a few minutes before rushing down the stairs for their friends to welcome Charlie with open arms into their small little party.


	4. josh’s favorites

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> staying here might be the sweetest thing you’ve ever done

“Shit, that was so sus Dashell, what the fuck?”

“There’s no mercy in Wii bowling Charlie, okay?”

In your adult years, you probably never expected you and your 3 closest friends to be dueling in Wii Sports Resorts while all of you’re other friends go to a cool party held by celebrities, but here Josh was, and honestly he wouldn’t have it any other way.   
It was crazy really, how they actually stayed back with him. They where literally in LA! A place for parties, not this, but it was always nice to have your favorite people around you, even if he wouldn’t admit just yet. 

The blonde next to Josh sunk down into the couch and groaned while watching his two idiot friends compare their ‘gamer ability’ on Wii bowling. “Can we play smash, or like any other game?” 

“No.” Josh blatantly responded.   
“Alright you bitch. You’re 1v1ing me in table tennis after this then” Carson replies, sitting up and looking down at the black-haired boy.  
Dash turns from his laser focus on tv to face Carson. “Uh, Carson, the switch is charging cause you and Charlie didn’t charge it last night so watch your mouth and watch me win at Wii Spor-“  
He’s cut off by Charlie’s, screech, jumping up and down as the words ‘Strike!’ run across the screen in bold print. 

Dash immediately turns his attention back, letting out an angry wheeze. “I swear to god I’m gonna break this stupid Wii.” 

Josh looks down at his lap, smiling gently.  
“Yo, um, I just wanna say— thanks for staying back with me.. and- uh- not going to the party. It’s nice to be here and not there really”

The room goes silent for a second, the only sound being the Wii ambience, and Josh almost thinks he did something wrong. He looks up, panicked, but Carson catches his tounge.  
“No problem dude! I probably wouldn’t wanna go either if I’m being honest. I’m not that social of a person”

Throwing his Wii controller so it hangs of his hand with the safety strap, Dashell says “Are you kidding me, I’d much rather hang out with my bro’s then go to some dumb party.” He scratches the back of his neck lightly.

Charlie looks at Josh next with a wide grin. “It’s cool, we know you probably hate everyone at that party anyways.”

Josh returns the smile, but upon realizing what Charlie said, it turns into a confused look.   
“What? I don’t hate everyone!”

Carson pats his shoulder. “Well, you don’t hate everyone nessacillary, but you do hate a lot of things.” He laughs. “Literally every time I go into one of your streams you’re getting mad at something”.

Realizing this is probably true, Josh huffs, proving their point. But slowly, his scoff turns into a smile and he says “well at least I can handle you guys”.

“Yup! We’re just the favorites!” Dashell exclaims giving the rest a thumbs up, then continuing to be much too cocky at Wii Sports.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! that’s pretty sweet! I hope you enjoyed :]


End file.
